St. Louis will host the UFL championship, again

St. Louis has taken to the UFL. And the UFL has taken to St. Louis.

For the second straight year, the UFL championship game will be held in the home stadium of the St. Louis Battlehawks. The league announced the decision during Sunday's game in St. Louis between the Battlehawks and the D.C. Defenders.

It's a no-brainer, frankly. St. Louis supports the spring league unlike any other UFL city. The Battlehawks have averaged more than 32,000 fans for each of their UFL home games; the other seven cities have a hard time getting to 10,000 on a consistent basis.

Of the eight UFL markets, St. Louis is the only one that used to have an NFL team but no longer does.

"You would love to see a lot of the markets duplicate it," Battlehawks coach Anthony Becht recently told Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com. "And it could definitely happen. I will say this is a unique market where something was taken from them. And the fans, actually a lot of them show up just because of that."

One fan confirmed Becht's assessment.

"It's a community experience with a shared interest in spring football and a shared hatred of Stan Kroenke," John Lewis told Seifert. "When I talk to some of the old-timers there, they're like, 'We loved the Rams. They did so much for this community, and then they snuck out.' Having a good professional football team in the place where the Rams played is kind of like a middle finger to Stan. It's like, 'We don't need you. Look what we have here.' And it's so much more accessible and cheaper than trying to go to a Rams game."

Last year, the UFL championship drew more than 27,000 fans, even though the Battlehawks didn't qualify for the game. It's hard to imagine any other UFL city drawing that many, even if the local team were playing in the game.

So, yes, St. Louis is the brightest spot in the UFL so far. Can the other markets do enough to complement St. Louis — and to make spring football finally a viable alternative to the traditional sports played in March, April, May, and June? Will the UFL have to move teams to other cities?

Ultimately, will the UFL survive?